Jenkin Jeans Market Performance - Report Example

Jinkin Jeans Jinkin Jeans report U58024: Introduction to People Management Amine Bouslama 12/10 Word Count 2034 Introduction Jinkin Jeans (JJ) is the producer of jeans and leisure wear and is owned by two brothers George and Trevor. Firm has 252 full time employees though it has a small beginning from a market stall. It has now factories overseas with senior management and managers belonging to the family. It is still run as a family owned business despite the fact that it has grown to such a size(Matthews, 2012, P.1) Business has generally remained successful however, firm is witnessing a decline in the sales in recent times. There are also certain human resource management issues which Etty, the Human Resource Director is overseeing. Due to lack of clarity, employees adapt their own methods of doing things.(Mathews, 2012, P.6) Major Competitor of JJ is M&S which is also the largest Clothing retailer in UK and is known for investing heavily in developing their employees.(Matthews,2012, P.4) Organizational Approach to HR. HRM Vs Personnel HRM is considered as “a strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving competitive advantage through a distinctive set of integrated employment”( Gould, B, 1998) The key terms in above definition are strategic and competitive advantage as both can be achieved by leveraging the strengths of the employees. Personnel is however concerned with the procedures and administration and how organization actually behave with its employees. It also suggests that it is a top-down approach with less trust and lack of information flow. The differences between the two are illustrated in Storey (1992) and are given in Appendix A Jinkins Jeans Company has been considered as one of the entrepreneurial successes due to its rapid rise in the market. However, the internal assessment of the firm indicates some serious flaws in terms of aligning organizational resources with the overall objectives of the firm. However, it seems there is more emphasis on administration rather than on the Human resource management. Lack of procedures and policies to take feedback from employees, intervention of staff in controlling and defining the procedures on their own as well as involvement of brothers is relatively counterproductive in nature. Though there are hints regarding the HRM within the organizations like employees determining their own schedules however these practices are not dominating. 2. HRM at Jinkin Jeans 3.1) Employee Relations Organization achieves this by developing employees through personal training and development. It is also required to put in place a proper infrastructure, systems and procedures which can motivate employees to achieve organization’s objectives. (Toor, 2009) One of the key aspects of the vision of the company is focused on the financial and marketing aspects of the organization only. It clearly lacks the vision in terms of developing employee relationships within the organization in order to achieve those objectives. The vision of the firm clearly lacks the mention of how organization is going to achieve its operational and business objectives with the help of its employees.(Mathews, 2012, P15) Though there seems to be evidence that employees are working in the organization since years and have developed effective relationships with the management. However, it Is still done at more casual level. As such, JJ may not be able to develop all its employees to a point where they derive more value for it. This is also due to the fact that most of the employees do not have the skills required to complete the jobs. The focus of the organization is on the cost cutting and not on developing employees to improve their strengths. This case is similar to the selective UK employment statues and statutory instruments, 1961-2007 (appendix 1) 3.2) Psychological Contract High Road HR practices actually result into positive changes in the employees and their performance can be improved. When a psychological contract is formed between the organization and the employee, there emerges a more positive relationship and resultantly performance improves.( Barton,J & Gold,J 2012) There is however lack of psychological contract between the employees and the organization. Both the stakeholders seem to be distant from each other with more reliance on the self rather than on the organization and its ability to solve the problems of employees.(Appendix 2) Major changes such as introduction of new information technology have been done without actually involving employees. Further, employees were performing the procedures which were not specifically assigned by the organizations. This clearly indicated that the organization actually failed to develop the skills of the employees to use new technology effectively. The resistance to use new technology and improving the professional efficiency may not result into reduction of the cost as actually mentioned in the vision statement. Company’s vision statement suggests that it plans to reduce its cost from 18.5% to 5%. Reliance on manual type of work and employees’ inability to actually use technology effectively may not result into reduction of the cost and firm may not be able to actually realize its vision.(Matthews, 2012 , P.22) 3.3) Performance Management Most of the staff is hired at the point where they just left their schools therefore their skill and managerial ability may not be sufficient enough to actually make them good managers.(Mathews,2012,P.4) Lack of redundancy policy and rotation of the employees on various tasks may not allow them to develop the skills early. This therefore suggests that there is a lack of staffing flexibility which may not allow the firm to meet the new challenges. Since the firm outsources some of its activities from other countries and global challenges may be difficult to overcome if the firm’s staffing policy is not flexible enough. Firm needs to develop core and peripheral teams of employees in order to better align its people with the overall objective of achieving cost reduction.( Stephens,2011) It is however, critical to note that the firm has not been able to implement those changes and developed the required infrastructure to achieve the objectives. At the time of recruitment of employees, the overall level of competence is not taken into consideration. Lack of competence and the lack of proper training and development infrastructure within the organization may not allow the firm to achieve its vision. To achieve the strategic objectives such as improving customer services as well as improvements in the use of technology require a certain level of competence.( Monavvarian, & Khamda, 2010) 3.4) Rewards Basically, when an organization pay rewards it is done in exchange of labor delivered by the workers. However, it can also be used as one of the most important motivation tools for the organization to motivate them also. It also reflects upon the overall fairness with which organization treats its employees.(appendix 5) Top management is also involved in deciding individual compensation increases for the employees. This may also serve as a strong de-motivating factor for those employees who may be performing better than those employees who are rewarded higher. Compensation of the employees is also not being paid according to the overall skill and performance of the firm. Higher level of compensation given based upon non-performance criteria may not result into the reduction of the cost for the firm. (Zairi,1996) 3.5) Human Resource Development Human Resource Development can serve as one of the most important tools to move an organization forward. It not only encourages growth but innovation also as employees to become more productive and empowered.(appendix 4) JJ approach to learning and development It is important to note that for a higher level management, it is always important to have a role which can set the future direction for the firm. Leadership of the firm therefore shall not be involved in the day to day activities and focus more on developing the vision for the firm.( Hotho & Champion,2011 ) It is however, explicit in case of Jinkins Jeans Company that top management is involved in small day to day activities. Involvement in day to day activities therefore may not allow the higher management of the firm to focus on issues like analysis of trends for boys fashion as well as design and develop campaigns to reach the hearts and minds of the customers. (appendix 6) In current scenario, the organization’s higher management clearly lacks the vision to implement these changes by properly placing them in right role. Higher management needs to re-evaluate its position and redefine the way it interacts with the employees. Higher management need to delegate the work to other employees in order to free them to focus more on setting strategic direction of the firm.( Zairi,1996) 3.6 Human resource planning Human Resource Planning is a process where an organization actually forecasts the employees requirements and plan accordingly. It is a process and must be considered as an essential part of the overall business strategy of the firm and must change according to the overall requirements of the organization. (Busch, M 1989) JJ approach to HR Planning It seems HR Planning is not existing within the organization and there are no long term plans or strategies. With no involvement of line managers in HR planning JJ complete lacks an organizational set up to oversee and develop its HR planning process. There exists a lack of expertise within the employees and organizations have not done enough to actually train its employees. The relationship between HR and the business strategy The overall relationship between JJ’s approach and the business strategy is very vague and lose in nature. Though there is a vision for the firm but there is a clear lack of business strategy which can actually help organization to manifest its vision. The vision of the firm critically lacks the focus on the development of HRM as one of the strategic tools for the organization to achieve its strategic objectives.(Appendix 3) It is also important to understand that organization needs to integrate its overall business strategy with its HR Strategy. It needs to make it more like strategic HR management with clear focus on identifying the targets, skills requirements and employees before JJ can actually attempt to achieve its organizational objectives. 4. Evaluation of JJ human resources approach to learning and development and its usefulness in offering the managers a valid tool for resourcing their departments It has been observed that greater involvement of line managers in the learning and development can actually improve the overall organizational productivity. Since there is no strategic HR policy within the organization therefore line managers are not mostly involved in the learning and development process. Line managers are engaged in recruiting with recruiting having no links with the overall organizational strategy. Each line manager seems to have his own policy to deal with various HR related issues. There are no clear indications of any job descriptions or other tools. Recommendations In order to overcome above situation, it is important to implement following strategies 1. Higher management of the firm should focus on the development of organizational objectives and disengage itself from the day to day activities of the firm. Leadership of the organization should put its concentration and focus on ensuring that right policies and procedures are in place and a culture is developed where people actually contribute towards the achievement of organization’s vision.( Bhatt,2001) 2. Jobs and needs assessment should be performed before making any recruitment decisions. HR manager shall continuously focus on developing job requirements through standard checklists and always ensure that line managers must ensure that each employee’s skills match with the job and needs of the organization. 3. Mandatory training schedules should be implemented to rotate all the employees to achieve the on job training. Each employee should be trained in understanding the overall vision of the firm and HR should provide a expectations list to the employees to actually fulfill those objectives. (Maloney,& Stanford, 2011) 4. There is also a need to build a diverse work force because firm operates in global marketplace. Having a diverse workforce can bring in more skills and aptitudes which can be utilized for the achievement of organization’s vision. 5. There is also a need to implement better compensation system within the organization in order to motivate employee. Linking compensation with the skills and performance of the employees would create more motivation for existing employees to perform better for the firm.( Haffer,& Kristensen, 2010) 6. Absenteeism is also an issue which needs to be overcome in order to improve the efficiency. The casual attitude of the managers towards this issue need to be corrected so that efficiency can be improved. Proper policies regarding absenteeism should be put in place and managers must be made accountable for the higher absenteeism within their departments. (Smith, 2008) 7. An effective recruitment policy needs to be implemented in order to achieve the objective of increasing the sales at individual store level. References 1. Barton,J & Gold,J 2012. Human resource management theory& practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan 2. Bossidy, L., Charan, R., and Burck, C. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. New York: Crown Business, 2002 3. Busch, M 1989 Organizational Strategy for Successful People Management, American Journal of Business, 4 (1), pp.7 – 10 4. Eldridge,D & Rahman , A. (1998). Reconceptualising human resource planning in response to institutional change. International Journal of Manpower. Vol. 19 (5), pp.343 - 357. 5. Smith,I 2008 People management – be bold!, Library Management, 29(1/2), pp.18 – 28 6. Gould, B, 1998 Employees’ experience of people management, Antidote, 3(8), pp.22 – 23 7. Maloney, K & Stanford, P 2011 The craft of people management, Human Resource Management International Digest,19(3), pp.3 – 5 8. Mathews,S 2012 Jinkin Jeans case study , Oxford Brookes University Business school 9. Toor, T 2009 People management: an imperative to effective project management, Business Strategy Series,10(1), pp.40 – 54 10. Mullins,J 2001 People-centred management in a library context, Library Review, 50(6), pp.305 – 309 11. Lockett, H, 2010 Leading from the front: putting the people back into people management, International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, , 6(3), pp.48 – 52 12. Zairi, H 1996 People management: where is the evidence of best practice? Part III" Training for Quality, 4(4), pp.37 – 44 13. Zadeh ,M. (2009). HR strategy and its aligning with organizational strategy and human capabilities . Iranian Journal of Management studies . 2 (2), p5-29. 14. Storey, J 1988 THE PEOPLE-MANAGEMENT DIMENSION IN CURRENT PROGRAMMES OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE, Employee Relations, 10 (6), pp.17 – 25 15. Monavvarian, A & Khamda,Z 2010 Towards successful knowledge management: people development approach, Business Strategy Series, 11(1), pp.20 – 42. 16. Zairi, H 1996 People management: where is the evidence of best practice? Part II, Training for Quality, 4(3), pp.23 – 31 17. Aramburu,N & Sáenz, J, 2007 Promoting people-focused knowledge management: the case of IDOM, Journal of Knowledge Management, 11(4), pp.72 – 81 18. Stephens, N 2011 Talent management: ensuring your people give you the competitive edge, Strategic Direction, 26(7), pp.3 – 5 19. Bhatt, G 2001 Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people, Journal of Knowledge Management, 5(1), pp.68 – 75 20. Hotho, S & Champion, K 2011 Small businesses in the new creative industries: innovation as a people management challenge, Management Decision, 49(1), pp.29 – 54 21. Khan, A & Khan, R 2011 The dual responsibility of the HR specialist: … for people issues and strategic management, Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(6) pp.37 – 38 22. Haffer, R & Kristensen, K, 2010 People management as indicator of business excellence: the Polish and Danish perspectives, The TQM Journal, 22(4), pp.386 - 398 Appendices Appendix A 1.1 selective UK employment statues and statutory instruments , 1961-2007 It could be seen through Appendix A that the statutory right refer to an array of legislation that affects the employer- union relationship Source : Barton,J & Gold,J 2012. Human resource management theory& practice p.11 Appendix 2 : the employment and psychological contract between employees and employers Source : Barton,J & Gold,J 2012. Human resource management theory& practice p.12 Appendix 3: Aligning HR with organizational strategy and Human capabilities Source : Zadeh ,M. (2009). HR strategy and its aligning with organizational strategy and human capabilities . Iranian Journal of Management studies . 2 (2), p5-29. Appendix 4: HRM functions contingencies and skills Source : Squires (2001) cited in Barton,J & Gold,J 2012. Human resource management theory& practice p.16 Appendix 5 : Alignment of business strategy , work design and reward practices Reward system design logic : rewards system alignment should include three elements ( see Exhibit 2) -Strategic drivers (input to design thinking ) - rewards philosophy and objectives ( core design decision) - compensation delivery mechanisms ( how core policy is carried out ) The key inputs to aligned reward system design are : Operation Governance Organizational capabilities Labor market requirements Source : Bossidy, L., Charan, R., and Burck, C. Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. New York: Crown Business, 2002. cited in People & Strategy, Volume 34, Issue 4, 2012. Published by HR People & Strategy, all rights reserved. www.hrps.org. Appendix 6: Human resource Learning and Development Source : Eldridge,D& Rahman , A. (1998). reconceptualising human resource planning in response to institutional change. Transformation at the center of Figure 1 represents a multi-faceted approach to learning in which stakeholders in the human resource area are actively engaged in establishing shared meanings and in designing actions to enable the organization to influence its environment in the way it desires. Contents 1.Introduction 1 Organizational Approach to HR. HRM Vs Personnel 1 2.HRM at Jinkin Jeans 2 3.1)Employee Relations 2 3.2)Psychological Contract 2 3.3)Performance Management 3 3.4)Rewards 3 3.5)Human Resource Development 4 3.6 Human resource planning 4 The relationship between HR and the business strategy 5 4.Evaluation of JJ human resources approach to learning and development and its usefulness in offering the managers a valid tool for resourcing their departments 5 Recommendations 6 References 7 Contents 15 Executive Summary Jinkin Jeans (JJ) Company started as a successful business however, over the period of time, its sales have declined. A closer analysis of the overall situation indicates that over Human Resource Management at the firm is not good. Firm has not put in place an effective HRM and is following an administrative and personnel style of human resource management. There is a clear lack of vision in terms of determining what could be the future requirements. Further, it is also important to note that the employees do not follow company practices and each manager have evolved his own policies and methods of dealing with HR issues. Compensation and Reward system has not yet evolved within the organization and owners of the firm are mostly involved in the compensation and other day to day activities of the firm. There is a clear need to ensure that firm should align its business strategy with that of its HR strategy and focus on developing a clear strategy to deal with this issue. Overall, employee relations are good however; they are still lacking professional development. Organization needs to focus more on the development of its employees in order to improve their skills and make them more skilled to meet future challenges. Read More